Hello Matt,
Our web site was started over 10 years ago as a place for folks to learn and share this Willys M Jeeps hobby. The success of the site has been tremendous because we have kept our questions out in the public board area where all can benefit from the answers.
You were sent a jeep survey form. That form collects the data we use to help folks learn more about their jeeps and find out more about what is correct or incorrect.
MD78688 fits between MD77363 a Nov 54 jeep and MD78775 a DEC 54 jeep. The military contracts were on the calendar year not model year concept so 1954 your jeep is. We do not have enough engine serial numbers in our data base for the 54/55 years to make an accurate assessment of what are correct or approximately correct engine serials should be.
Your contract # would have been -630. Most of these Nov/Dec 54 jeeps went to the Army. The only way to tell if a pre-1962 M38A1 was originally delivered to the Marines is from the dataplate set on the dash. The responsible agency plate will have the answer for that.
A word of caution here. When the Army made the big switch from M38A1 to M151, the Marines did not. They had tested the M151 and did not like it. So when the Army declared the bulk of their A1's surplus in 1960/61 the Marines picked most of them up from the DRMO. These several thousand M38A1's were then processed thru the Marine vehicle depots at Barstow and Albany and brought up to the same standard as their current 62/64 contract m38A1's. This meant they received new responsible agency plates like the second above, they also gained posi rear ends, undercoating, M151 style instrument cluster lamps and many also got the M151 style air cleaners. These are the jeeps that often confuse owners trying to discern which service owned them.
